US cleric molested hundreds of hearing impaired children in confession

Vatican’s #2 official is also implicated in dozens of pages of long-secret records

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at sidewalk news conferences, in Rome and five US cities, clergy sex abuse victims will
-- disclose dozens of pages of long-secret church records showing that the world’s top two Catholic officials insisted, for years in the 1990s, on keeping a serial US predator priest’s case secret, fearing “scandal,”
-- urge the Pope to disclose how he and his office handled pedophile priests for years earlier this decade, and
-- urge anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes and cover ups to come forward, get help, call police, expose wrongdoers, protect others and start healing.

WHO
A Minnesota man who is a clergy sex abuse victim and a leader of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY
According to a new New York Times story, a US pedophile priest reportedly abused between 150-200 deaf kids at a school over 24 years, often during confessions. Yet for years, a small Vatican bureaucracy headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now the Pope) fought three US bishops’ efforts to oust the predator, citing a fear of scandal.

Initially, Ratzinger twice ignored letters from Wisconsin Archbishop Rembert Weakland. Later, Ratzinger’s then-top aide, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Weakland could discipline the priest using a controversial 1962 church policy called ‘Crimens Sollicitationis’ that mandates extreme secrecy. But the predator wrote to Ratzinger, seeking mercy, and Bertone then reversed course. At a meeting in Rome with three Wisconsin bishops, Bertone discouraged them from taking any formal action against Murphy (even though the priest admitted molesting dozens of boys). In 1998, Murphy died. His crimes only came to light in 2002.

Bertone is now the Vatican Secretary of State, the second most powerful church official in the world.

As Pope, Benedict has repeatedly paid lip service to “transparency” in his advice to bishops on child sex cases. In light of this, and recent disclosures of abuse and cover up in his home diocese of Munich, SNAP wants the pontiff to publicly disclose how he handled hundreds of cases from across the globe from 2001-2005 as head of CDF, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Murphy worked at St. John’s school from 1950-1974 and headed the school from the early 1960s through 1974. It’s now closed. Besides Weakland, Bishop Richard Sklba of Milwaukee and Bishop Raphael Fliss of Superior also sought Vatican action against Murphy. None acted, however, until civil lawsuits were threatened.

SNAP is holding similar news conferences today (Thursday) in Rome & four other US cities (Chicago IL, Milwaukee WI, Washington DC, and Boulder Junction WI). For details, see SNAPnetwork.org